North America, APAC will drive 5G adoption

Despite not yet launching, 5G is projected to reach more than 500 million subscribers by 2022, accounting for around 15% of the global population, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

The rapid adoption of the next iteration of network standards is likely in part a result of a March 2017 decision by 3GPP — a group of telecoms associations. The group gave the go-ahead for the acceleration of initial 5G standardization, supporting early deployment of the technology for hardware and telecoms.

The hype around 5G is centered on how its faster data transfers will revolutionize the connected world. 5G will support data rates in excess of several tons of megabytes per second, expand network coverage, and reduce latency — the amount of time between when data is sent from a connected device to when it returns to the same device.

Here are the key takeaways on the evolving 5G market, according to Ericsson:

5G adoption will take off much faster than the adoption of 4G LTE. For comparison, as of Q1 2017, after six years on the market, 20% of the global mobile population is using the 4G standard. This growth is unsurprising — each iteration of the network standard has been adopted faster and by a larger population than its predecessor. 4G took five years to cover 2.5 billion users, compared with eight years for 3G.

North America, Asia-Pacific, and Western Europe will lead 5G adoption. These markets have already begun trials of 5G networks and devices, which will speed up deployment and adoption of the next standard. By 2022, roughly 25% of mobile subscriptions in North America will be 5G, with 4G LTE primarily accounting for the rest. Meanwhile, 5G will make up 10% of mobile subscriptions in Asia-Pacific.

5G could boost adoption of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), and the IoT. The promised improvements 5G will bring, such as decreased latency, will support a wide range of IoT-connected devices, present enhanced VR and AR experiences, and enable faster and more reliable mobile video. This could boost adoption of newer, bleeding-edge technology.

The expanding adoption of high-speed mobile internet such as 4G, as well as the introduction and impending rapid adoption of 5G in mature markets, will have a significant impact on data consumption and device usage over the forecast period. Smartphones will account for 90% of mobile data traffic by 2022, and individual data consumption is going to increase tenfold. By 2022, 12GB of data traffic will be consumed per smartphone, globally. That's a substantial jump from the average 2.1GB of data traffic per smartphone recorded in 2016. This could put a massive strain on wireless operators' networks, potentially leading to increased Wi-Fi offloading.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is disrupting businesses, governments, and consumers and transforming how they interact with the world. Companies are going to spend almost $5 trillion on the IoT in the next five years — and the proliferation of connected devices and massive increase in data has started an analytical revolution.

To gain insight into this emerging trend, BI Intelligence conducted an exclusive Global IoT Executive Survey on the impact of the IoT on companies around the world. The study included over 500 respondents from a wide array of industries, including manufacturing, technology, and finance, with significant numbers of C-suite and director-level respondents.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has conducted an exclusive study with in-depth research into the field and created a detailed report on the IoT that describes the components that make up IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market in terms of device installations and investment through 2021. And we examine the importance of IoT providers, the challenges they face, and what they do with the data they collect. Finally, we take a look at the opportunities, challenges, and barriers related to mass adoption of IoT devices among consumers, governments, and enterprises.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

We project that there will be a total of 22.5 billion IoT devices in 2021, up from 6.6 billion in 2016.

We forecast there will be $4.8 trillion in aggregate IoT investment between 2016 and 2021.

It highlights the opinions and experiences of IoT decision-makers on topics that include: drivers for adoption; major challenges and pain points; stages of adoption, deployment, and maturity of IoT implementations; investment in and utilization of devices, platforms, and services; the decision-making process; and forward- looking plans.

In full, the report:

Provides a primer on the basics of the IoT ecosystem

Offers forecasts for the IoT moving forward and highlights areas of interest in the coming years

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT, choose one of these options:

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